John Pham, a volunteer, counts pedestrians and cyclists on the corner of Pine Avenue and Broadway on Thursday morning. After 90 minutes through the 2 hour shift he counted more than 200 pedestrians and 50 cyclists. The City of Long Beach is holding its 6th Annual Bike Count on October 17th and 20th. In our quest to become the most bike friendly city in America, Long Beach has been collecting data on cyclist behavior and traffic volumes annually since 2008. With five years of data already collected, Long Beach´s database is one of the longest-running and most consistent in the nation. Oct. 17, 2013. (Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer)

The City of Long Beach is holding its 6th Annual Bike Count on October 17th and 20th. In our quest to become the most bike friendly city in America, Long Beach has been collecting data on cyclist behavior and traffic volumes annually since 2008. (Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer)

LONG BEACH >> Paul Van Dyk dreams of a city on two wheels.

In the past six years, Van Dyk, the city’s traffic engineer, and other city officials have campaigned to make Long Beach the most bike-friendly city in the country by adding infrastructure such as bike lanes and observing rider trends through annual counts.

The effort continued Thursday as volunteers counted foot and bike traffic at more than 35 intersections in the city. They noted whether bicyclists were driving the wrong way, riding on a sidewalk and wearing a helmet as well as their age, gender and other demographic data.

Although the information, which was compiled from 7 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, has yet to be analyzed, Van Dyk said he expected to see an increase in bicycle ridership in most of the city.

About 2,000 riders were counted during the first bike count in 2008 at 11 intersections in the city and that number increased to 2,700 in 2012 in the same locations, he said.

Van Dyk said he will compile Thursday’s data by Oct. 23 and have it analyzed by the end of the month.

Many bike count areas have shown growth in ridership, particularly after infrastructure such as bike lanes are implemented, he said. The intersection of Carson Street and Atlantic Avenue in Bixby Knolls grew from about 50 riders in the 2008 count to about 125 in 2012, which followed the city painting bike lanes in 2011.

The bike count numbers are also used by the city to cross-reference police statistics on bicycle-related accidents. This allows city officials to assess safety on bike routes and adjust infrastructure to ensure a safe, secure environment for riders and drivers, Van Dyk said.

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“Demographic data showed that in 2008, one-in-five cyclists were riding the wrong way on the street,” he said. “That contributes to right-hook accidents (when a rider is going straight and a driver making a right turn crashes into them). We started a campaign encouraging riders to go (with the flow of traffic) and now it’s one-in-20.”

Frank Drews, co-founder of Cyclone Coaster, a Long Beach club that focuses on vintage bicycles, said he has noticed significant improvements in riding on city streets, but that motorists need to be educated on where bicycles are allowed to ride.

“The problems are mostly with drivers,” Drews said.

The green bike-share lanes, which are used by cars and bicycles, can be confusing and drivers do not know that they are open to bicyclists, Drews said.

“We need public awareness, but it’s much friendlier than it was in 2006 when we started riding,” he said. “Some people don’t care because they’re never going to get on a bike.”

Although ridership is increasing in Long Beach, Van Dyk said he does not expect people to abandon cars for bicycles or public transportation.

“It’s giving people options,” he said. “I think we’re on the right path.”

Van Dyk joined city officials Thursday afternoon at a meeting to discuss the Bike Master Plan, a city plan that aims to increase bicycle use from 1 percent to 5 percent by 2020.

“We’ll actually be discussing our 10-year plan,” he said. “We’re not looking for a shift from driving to riding.”

Ideally, Long Beach will get to a point where riders and drivers share the road equally, Van Dyk said.

Car culture is too deeply ingrained in Southern California for the public to abandon driving altogether, but encouraging people to ride bicycles, particularly on short trips to school or the grocery store, will result in less-congested streets and more efficient transportation in the city as a whole.